The NZ Pacific Party was founded by former Labour MP Taito Philip Fields, and claims to represent “Christian and family values as well as standing for social justice”. As things stand, that is all that’s known of it’s politics, as the Party has not put forward any other policies or made any other statements.

(Taito Philip Fields)

Fields currently plans on running only in Mangere, the seat he currently holds as an independent MP, after being expelled from the Labour Party.

It’s hard to form an exact view of the Pacific Party, as it has not released any policies! But it’s plain to see that it does not represent anything radically new in NZ politics. It’s talk of “Christian and family values” will undoubtedly mean in reality a conservative, reactionary social agenda, and it is likely that it will oppose such things as full rights for gay people, women’s full right to abortion and so on. This can only be speculation, but it’s a safe bet.

Fields has declared his opposition to the legislation put in place by the Labour-led government against physical discipline being applied to children, and cites this as one of the reasons why he left the Labour Party.

The NZ Pacific Party appears to have two main aspects to it. Firstly, a socially conservative Christian party that represents a backlash against some of the socially-liberal policies put in place by successive National and Labour governments since the 1980s.

Secondly, it represents a vehicle for Philip Taito Field’s political ambition and his personal ego, in the same way that “Jim Anderton’s Progressive Party” represents the same for Jim Anderton (obviously).

It is obvious that fundamentally, the Pacific Party is not planning on making any real changes to the society we live in, and is instead happy with communalistic demagoguery and pork barrel politics. Working people in New Zealand, and specifically the poor Pacific Islanders this Party intends to try and solicit votes from, have nothing to gain from supporting Taito Philip Fields and the NZ Pacific Party.